Oct 21, 2016

Desktop Gmail Client `WMail` 2.0.0 Stable Released

WMail is a free, open source desktop client for Gmail and Google Inbox, available for Linux, Windows, and Mac.

The application is a wrapper for Gmail / Google Inbox with unlimited account support, on top of which it adds features such as native desktop notifications (notification bubble and sound), unread email counter in the tray, and more.

Compared to other such applications, like Franz or Rambox, which support many other services, WMail provides a lot more customization, including per-account settings, and it integrates more tightly with the desktop. For instance, both Franz and Rambox notify you about new emails, but they don't display the most recent emails in the indicator / tray menu, like WMail.

Also, WMail provides native desktop notifications (Franz and Rambox suppose to support this as well, but at least for me, the notifications don't work for Gmail), and an unread email counter on the Unity launcher (which Rambox supports but Franz doesn't).

Therefore, WMail is more useful if you only need Gmail, especially if you use multiple Gmail accounts, however, alternatives like Franz or Rambox might be a better option if you use multiple services.

WMail settings and the Unity Launcher unread email badge counter

The latest WMail 2.0.0 stable includes quite a few interesting changes. For instance, on Linux, there's a new option to ignore GPU blacklist (Settings > Advanced), which should solve rendering issues, another new option for displaying the unread email count in the Unity launcher icon, and more.

Here's a list of the most interesting changes in WMail 2.0.0 (stable):

Tray / AppIndicator changes:

tray icon designer in the settings screen;

option to change the background color of the tray icon;

auto-theming of tray depending on OS theme;

DPI Multiplier for tray icon for users with 4K monitors;

changed tray menu to have submenus for each mailbox (see the first screenshot in this article);